The proposed methodological study adapts multiple regression simulation (MRS) procedures to the investigations of birth planning decisions. The MRS approach differs from commonly used measures by yielding quantitative description of the relative importance to potential parents of such family parameters as income and present number of children. That is, MRS measures individual thinking about means to reaching family planning goals. Recent studies have shown that MRS derived decision policies are reliable descriptions of the cognitions underlying the decision to have a child. The general purpose of the proposed study is to assess the validity of MRS described polices. To accomplish this end, MRS policies derived from the decisions a person makes for a set of hypothetical families are used to predict the person's decisions for his own family. If the procedure is supported as being valid, it could be used to investigate such components of family conflict as disagreements, compromise, cognitive change, and empathy of spouses.